…and when he got out he became a character in Caryl Phillips’ wonderful ‘brothers’ bonding novel, Cambridge.

Andy Simons

Modern British Collections/Social History

The British Library

From: The Black and Asian Studies Association [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Marika Sherwood
Sent: 03 August 2010 17:50
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject:

From a review of

WHEN LONDON WAS CAPITAL OF AMERICA By Julie Flavell, Illustrated. 305 pp. Yale University Press. $32.50

Julie Flavell's "When London Was Capital of America" illuminates this fascinating chapter of London's -- and North America's -- past, showing how the metropolis functioned as a magnet for colonists from across the Atlantic (including the West Indies) who sought accomplishment, opportunity and commerce.………

Among her subjects is Henry Laurens, a Southern plantation… Arriving in London in October 1771 along with two of his sons and a slave… Scipio, began calling himself Robert Laurens as soon as he stepped ashore, obviously eager to be rid of what was clearly identifiable as a slave name. He wanted, Flavell suggests, "to be taken seriously in England."… The temptation to stay in Britain must have been overwhelming: in early 1774, just as Henry Laurens was planning to return to South Carolina, Robert committed a burglary and was imprisoned for 12 months. "Detained at His Majesty's pleasure," Flavell explains, Robert was "where Henry could not get him." Henry Laurens departed from England without his slave. Robert left prison a free man and remained in Britain.

Does anyone know of any other instances of this brilliant tactic to obtain freedom?